Death of the Fifth a Ghost Adventure's Tale
by SongsofPsyche1945
Summary: Zak Bagans could not believe his eyes when he saw Lucy O'Neil walk through the GAC office doorway. For weeks he had been trying and trying to get the famous ghost hunter to join the GAC crew. Each time he tried she had told him no, that she was done with the paranormal but he never listened. He always got what he wanted, and he wanted her on his team.


Zak Bagans could not believe his eyes when he saw Lucy O'Neil walk through the GAC office doorway. For weeks he had been trying and trying to get the famous ghost hunter to join the GAC crew. Each time he tried she had told him no, that she was done with the paranormal but he never listened. He always got what he wanted, and he wanted her on his team.

Five years ago Lucy had been the most famous paranormal expert on television. She was the head investigator of The Fifth Kind, the show that inspired Zak to begin Ghost Adventures. Lucy had always been one of his idols; she, like him had come from a rough family, but she had made it through to follow her passions. She was a psychic, and had the ability to communicate with spirits with ease. She had had a huge team, a huge budget and was well respected among the paranormal investigators for her subtle yet effective approach to gathering evidence. They were the only team that filmed and aired in real time. Unlike Ghost Adventures, which was filmed and edited during the summer and then aired all at once during the fall.

Then, suddenly out of no where the show was canceled in the middle of it's sixth season. And it was like Lucy and her team had disappeared. No one heard from her, no one saw her for five long years. That was until Zak spotted her in a tea shop three months ago. She she was cordial to him, but he could tell she wanted to be left alone. They exchanged cards, took a picture and were on their own ways.

It had been Nick's idea to invite her on the show. She politely declined the offer, telling them in an email that she was done with that part of her life. She had moved on.

But how could one move on from something that they were so damn good at? Zak never understood that, so he started writing her letters. Once a week, and she always declined.

Until now.

Lucy walked over to him and handed him a tape silently.

A note was attached to it that read;

"Watch this. When you're done call me and tell me if you truly want me on your team. If still you want me after you've seen it, I'll do a season with you."

Zak took the tape, "Thank you."

Lucy nodded, and then walked out of the office.

Zak could not contain his excitement as he looked at the tape labeled "The Fifth Kind/Season 6/ Kensington Ghost Town, Arizona"

It was the missing episode from the 6th season, the one that had been advertised on TV but never had aired. Zak had always wondered what had happened. They always filmed in real time, and never edited anything out. Which was what made the show so compelling. What could have gone so wrong that they had taken the show off the air and the entire team had gone into hiding?

Hands trembling with anticipation, Zak put the tape into the vintage VHS player and hit play.

He watched in silence as the title and theme song for The Fifth Sense loomed on to the screen and the episode began;

"Hello, we are in Kensington Arizona. Home of the most haunted Ghost Towns in the United States! Unlike most ghost towns, this one is occupied with the living. It is the smallest town in the United States." Lucy's voice stated as the camera rolled over the desert hills. She appeared on screen, looking beautiful and mysterious. As she always did.

The episode continued with Lucy walking around the town, showing places where ghost sightings had happened. Residents of the town were there, looking at them with curious eyes as she filmed. Since it was filmed in real time, it was almost dusk. They always did their investigations at night.

Suddenly the tape twisted, and several short shots happened at once, so fast it was hard for Zak to make sense of what was happening;

Red eyes and a voice murmuring things in an unknown language.

A low growl in the darkness, and someone shouting "No! No no no no no!"

A shot of the crew members running down the hallway of an abandoned building, "Run! Go go go! Don't let them catch you!"

A lopsided camera angle of bound and chained feet, and a woman crying.

Lucy reaching for the camera with bound hands. Her face is dirty and heavily cut. He breathes are short and quick. "My phone won't work. I can't move. I must tell you now; demons are real. Fucking real. Do not come to this town."

Lucy's terrified face before she turns the camera up and around, "I think they went down to the basement." She whispered, "But I cant-" and the clink of chains.

Lucy again, and faint screams in the background "They took them. All of them. Dean, Katie-Ann, and Sam. I can hear them screaming." Tears fall down her face as the screaming continues.

Blackness.

"It's been quieter now. I think they are gone. I was able to unhook the chains from the floor. I'm going to the basement now." Lucy says in a whisper.

The clink of chains and Lucy's heavy breathing as she walks down the stairs to the basement.

What happens next takes Zak's breathe away. The entire crew is in the basement, and they are sinking into the desert. Like quicksand, and then like concrete, it floors hardens, fixing its living trophies like flies in amber.

The camera panned and Zak saw Katie-Ann, buried to breast level. Tears were pouring down her cheeks; she was sobbing like a little girl..

Only Katie-Ann, Dean and two other men survived. One was locked in the earth up to his chin, Eleanor was buried so that her breasts sat on the ground, her arms were free to beat uselessly at the ground that held her fast. Dean was held from his hips down, and most horribly, one pathetic victim was seen only by his nose and mouth. His head tipped back into the ground, blinded by rock. Still he breathed. Still he screamed.

Katie-Ann was scrabbling at the ground with torn nails, but this was not loose sand. It was unmovable.

She looked up at Lucy, and the camera focused on her panicked face.

"What happened?" Lucy asks in a trembling voice.

"The demons. They left us. The floor began to sink. I can't move. Please, please help us."

Lucy trying and failing to pull her friends up out of the ground.

The sound of water running, and the camera focusing on a flow coming from a pipe.

Katie-Ann's frightened face.

" Lucy. Lucy. Help us. Please. Go. Get help" she demanded of Lucy, hands bleeding

The two women stared at each other.

"Jesus god!" screamed the mouth as water poured into it.

"Please. Lucy, help us…" pleaded Davidson's torso, " Go fetch help"

"Go!" demanded Eleanor Kooker, "Go…"

The took one last pan of the basement with it's trapped victims. Then Lucy turned and ran.

The screen went blank.

White words on black formed on the screen;

"_The Fifth Sense crew perished after this video was taken in a freak mud slide accident. Lucy was the only survivor.__"_

And then the VHS player clicked to a stop, Zak didn't move an inch.

Lucy was the only survivor.

Her crew had been sucked into the desert and they died.

Zak stood up from his chair. Did he still want Lucy on his team?

No.

Yes.

Definitely yes.

She had just captured the most compelling evidence in all of paranormal times. They had a caught an actually demon on camera. The existed. How did she do it?

He called Nick, "Come over. You've got to see this!"

Zak watched Nick watch the tape. When it ended, Nick leaned back in his chair and sighed.

Nick shook his head, "She watched her crew die, man. That's gotta be tough on anybody. I didn't know. Can you imagine what she felt? To listen to them like that?" he said.

He picked up her note, "But I think having her on the team will be the best thing for her."

"You think?" Zak asked

Nick nodded, "yeah. I think so. Someone has to give her a second chance."

888

"We want to investigate Kensington"

Lucy's eyes flashed up in fear.

"No. NO! You can't , you'll die! Did you watch the tape? I wont allow that to happen to you, I wont allow more people to die because of me."

She flinched away from Nick's outstretched hand and stood up from her chair. She paced over to the window and put her hand to the glass.

"It will be safe. I promise, we wont let anything happen. We wont do what they did. Please, please it would mean so much to us if you came."

Lucy stared out the window for a moment, and then she spoke in a grave voice.

"I told Dean that I didn't want to investigate Kensington. The stories were too disturbing. But he pushed for it, he pushed so hard that I finally let it and we went there. The entire time I felt that we shouldn't be there. It was like deep down I knew what was going to happen yet I didn't do anything to stop it."

"I'll go with you. But only if you promise to listen to me. If I tell you to run, you run. Don't stay and try to be the hero. Ive seen your show, I know what you guys do. Provocing isn't going to do you any favors."

Nick smiled at her, "Deal."


End file.
